Gastrointestinal bioreactor to evaluate ingestible medicines and inform formulation and manufacture

One of the major factors limiting understanding the complex dynamic environment in the gut, is the technical difficulty of accessing or visualising the GI tract. GIBio provides a mechanism to replicate the dynamic environment of the gut without the costs or variability associated with animal or human studies such that the design, development and manufacture of formulated ingested products will be transformed.

GIBio underpins the development of robust products by providing clinical quality data early in development to accelerate the translation of healthcare technologies to patients. This gold standard equipment, the only accessible facility in the UK, will reduce the time and costs associated with the design, development and manufacture of new drug products.

Oral administration is the most common drug delivery route. Absorption of a drug from the gut into the bloodstream involves disintegration of the dosage form, dissolution of the drug, and transport across the gut wall. The efficiency of these processes is determined by highly complex and dynamic interactions between the gastrointestinal tract, the dosage form and the drug.

This complex interplay determines drug delivery performance and may cause large interindividual variability, but is poorly understood. The fine tuning of the equipment to reproduce the gut in health and disease will ensure that patient centric products are developed to improve therapeutic outcomes.

Furthermore, GIBio will generate new research opportunities in formulated ingested products from the food, including animal feed industries and in the evaluation of ingested sensors and medical devices.